Shuttered Windows
by Azecreth
Summary: There was life out there, beyond these walls, that she knew. And as long as it was there, she would continue to play, to show them the truth of the world. [Needs Mayu tag]


**A/N: Ah, Mayu, how to describe what I feel about you? On the one hand she's pitiful, emotionally stunted, and incredibly lonely. But on the other hand she knows that what she's doing is wrong and doesn't stop it. So, I'm not sure if I should despise her or be sympathetic to her.**

**Still, it makes good story material. Fave/review, and let's see if we can get more stuff in this fandom soon.**

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><p>The room was white, almost blindingly so, tinted with purples and blues on the fringes. It gave off an appearance of holiness and innocence, a false hope that many would not see at first glance. It hadn't always been that way, but it was as it was because the occupant wanted it that way.<p>

The design of the room was eclectic, scattered and confused. Stairs that went nowhere, dozens of shuttered windows, gates across empty rooms with no entrances, upper walkways connected to nothing, large arches. It led to a large room with a bed in the middle, though the bed didn't look like it had been occupied in some time. Small reflecting pools contained water, clean and cold, scattered about the large mismatched tiles and uneven flooring in the room.

Through it stepped a girl, the only girl in this place, the only girl ever in this place. Mayu's gaze traveled listlessly about this place, long near white hair held behind her as she listened to the noise, all the noise that filled this place, with her red earrings swaying in gentle motion, her dress ruffling as she walked. It was the noise of people talking, laughing, crying, having fun, and being in sadness, pain. Had she known what it was really like it would have been unbearable, but as it was it beat a constant tempo against her skull, stirring strange feelings inside her she could only interpret as a desire to see the world outside, and what it was like.

But she couldn't. In all the indeterminate time she had been here, there was no way out. Not for her anyway. She'd looked, she'd tried, but in the end it was useless. She had to stay, and so stay she would.

All she could do was sit, and watch, and listen. There were visitors, occasionally, new Eternal Girls to be made into LRIGs, but none of those lasted. She could not keep them, not when there was so much suffering to bring to the happy girls beyond.

Small, measured steps took her from one side of the room to the other, gaze traveling across closed portraits. Then again, would she want to leave even if she had the chance? Out there was only pain and suffering, and sadness. That was the whole point after all. If people were happy, there would be no one to play WIXOSS and try to become Eternal Girls. From all she'd seen, and heard, she had no desire to see that harsh world out there, not when she could be safe and unharmed in here.

Such casual thoughts preoccupied her time in a space where there was naught much else to do but think. Architecture reorganized itself to her will, but such things had lost their amusement a long time ago. No, she needed other things to take her time now.

With a small grin, she opened open of the multitude of windows that dotted this place, to see her poor Shiro, looking utterly miserable as the LRIG of Ulith. It pained her to see the Girl of White like that, a heavy weight upon what must be her heart, but she did not regret what she did.

"Poor Shiro," she said with a subtly mocking tone as her hand rested gently against the window. "So sad and alone. The world really is a scary place, isn't it?"

Shiro had to learn, had to see that the world was scary, bad, not a place she should choose to be. Mayu didn't want her Girl of White to abandon her for whatever was out there, to suffer like the rest of them. She was too pure for that.

No, she had to stay, had to continue. She had to bring the other girls hope, so their dreams could be realized and the system continued. She needed more girls to be LRIGs, to show them the truth of the world they lived in. And by seeing the true ugliness of the world, Shiro would be compelled to stay.

With a diverted gaze, that window closed, and another snapped open to reveal her other friend, Kuro, the Girl of Black. A smirk graced her lips as she looked upon the other girl of hers, and her mood.

"So naughty," Mayu said to her in a scolding, yet still amused. "Don't you know Kuro, Black and White shouldn't mix. That kind of darkness can never be simply wiped away."

This was different from Shiro, more interesting, yet more concerning. It was fun, enjoyable even, to see Kuro struggling to turn away from her own nature, to take on more of the 'white' that she so desired. After all, it was a doomed effort in the end. Down to her core, Kuro was black as darkest night, as it should be.

And just like her Girl of White, Mayu still needed her girl of Black. She needed a girl to smash, and destroy, and to bring the dreams of those hopeful people crashing down as they found their wishes twisted against them. That was her purpose, that was why she existed, and she could no more stand against that than Shiro could turn against her own nature. Mayu would not allow it.

Still, she tried. Both of them tried. And Mayu flicked open the other window so she could look between the two. Something was happening, and it was worrying to her. She could not allow change, would not allow change. She liked how things were, and didn't want it to end. Shiro and Kuro were hers, and no one elses.

Idly, the thought crossed her mind that perhaps the world is getting too unruly, too willfully disobedient, and that she should just wipe it all out and start again from a blank canvas. Get rid of the ones who wanted to stop her and begin things anew. Surely that could be enjoyable, no?

And who was to say she couldn't? She was the closest thing to this concept of 'God' that existed. She had made Shiro and Kuro, and it was a reasonable assumption to make that the world beyond that interacted with WIXOSS, it's wishes and crushed dreams, was all of her creation as well. All it would take was a mere thought, a wave of her hand, and it would all be gone.

But she refrained for the moment. There was still things of interest in this world, things to see played out to their end, so she wouldn't destroy them. Yet.

And then all the windows opened, all fixed on the source of this disturbance, this trouble, this amusement. One single girl, who had caused all this. One who had touched both Kuro and Shiro in ways Mayu had not predicted. Ruko. She had given Kuro a taste of the light, and shown Shiro real happiness, without the fall to despair afterwards. She was someone Mayu had not expected to appear.

Ruko was a threat, to herself, to her world. She wanted to end this game, the game in which Mayu was the judge and made the rules. She wanted to take Shiro and Kuro from her, and all the other girls, and leave Mayu all alone here. She would be stuck here, in this room, while whatever was beyond these walls got to go on, and it was something that Mayu would not allow.

"Ah, Ruko, so pure, so noble. You've quite the following, don't you," Mayu commented as she looked at the image in what one could assume was almost longing, but far from it. For what concern she gave, she would not let Ruko take away what was hers, nor stop the games. She made Selector Battles, she made the rules.

She could stop it, and yet she didn't. She wanted to see how far the girl could go, how far Ruko could be pushed before she fell like all the others. It was why Ulith had been made a Selector again, and Akira. It was why Shiro had been exchanged for Kuro. Could that beauty be brought down? She didn't know, but she wanted to find out. It had been so long since she'd had something fun to do. Even Gods needed to be entertained.

"Don't worry," she said to the unsuspecting girl with brimming anticipation. "We'll be meting soon enough."

The windows slammed shut, and Mayu walked on, as she had, and as she would continue to do. The world flowed around her, like a river around a rock in the stream, yet she played the currents to her own whims. Was she a God? She wasn't sure, but in the end it didn't matter. This was her world and she would protect it.

And when she and Ruko met, the girl would learn that. Right before she joined the system she had set out to end.


End file.
